Tina Knowles Reveals the Real Reason She Quietly Went Back to Mathew After He Cheated— and Fans Think This Is Why Beyoncé Stayed with Jay

At the LA Times Studios’ fifth annual Inspirational Women Forum & Leadership Awards, Tina Knowles, the 71-year-old author of “Matriarch” opened up — again — about the moment she realized she could no longer stay in a relationship that had shaped and at times swallowed three decades of her life.

She told the crowd that leaving Mathew Knowles felt almost impossible because their lives were deeply merged.

“I was married for 33 years. I’d been with someone for 33 years and you can imagine how intertwined our lives were,” she said, according to Hello! Magazine.

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She explained that the idea of separating her identity from his terrified her, confessing, “I thought, ‘How do I untangle this ball of yarn? Because my life is so intertwined with my ex-husband.’”

Even after she made the decision to walk away, she struggled to imagine a future on her own. “I didn’t know how to be solo without this other person,” she said.

The emotional weight of her choice followed her out of the marriage and into a period of deep self-reflection. Knowles told the audience she feared starting over at 59, admitting she wondered, “How am I going to do this by myself?”

She said she even questioned whether companionship would ever return in her life, remembering the moment she told herself, “I thought to myself, ‘I’m 59. Where am I going to get a man? I’m not going to the club.’”

Therapy also helped her reshape her thinking, allowing her to confront her insecurities and acknowledge her successes side by side. That shift helped her release much of the anger that had lingered after the marriage ended.

After Knowles’ remarks began circulating online did social media jump in with commentary. When The Jasmine Brand posted the story on its Facebook page, many had mixed reviews about her remarks.

“That’s good, she was able to free herself from codependency, which a lot of people have in marriages,” one user wrote.

Another person teased, “Lady, you done got divorced, remarried, and divorced again…what?”

On Instagram, they also weighed in with more compassionate comments.

 “33 years is a lifetime. I can imagine that would be hard!” someone said.

Another added, “Thanks for sharing your story with the world because I know it wasn’t easy… but you made it through.”

One person suggested, “This could be why SOME people jump back into another relationship after a divorce.”

And one commenter took the discussion in a different direction, asking, “Is that why Beyoncé won’t leave Jay?”

Her daughters had strong feelings about the unraveling of their parents’ marriage, especially when they learned their mother had secretly reconciled with Mathew for a brief period before the divorce.

In “Matriarch,” Knowles explains that Beyoncé processed the discovery with quiet disappointment, while Solange “exploded,” unable to understand how her mother could return to a man whose betrayals had caused so much pain. Knowles said her younger daughter’s anger came from a place of deep loyalty and protectiveness—a reaction shaped by years of witnessing the fallout of her father’s choices.

Despite everything, Knowles also acknowledged that Mathew was her “protector,” a person she would still want in her corner if something went wrong. That complicated history made leaving harder, but it also made her eventual decision even braver.

Knowles later married longtime friend Richard Lawson, with whom she shared a decades-long bond before they wed in 2015. Their union ended in 2024, and Lawson kept the details private, saying only that they walked away with “gratitude and appreciation.”

Knowles later revealed that the marriage simply wasn’t bringing out her best self anymore.

During her Oprah’s Book Club appearance, she recalled telling Tyler Perry, “This marriage is not bringing out the best in me, and I have finally found my worth.”

Perry grew emotional, telling her he was proud of her for breaking a cycle that many women feel pressured to repeat. He reminded her that her choice would shape not only her daughters’ understanding of self-worth, but also her grandson’s view of how to treat the woman who will one day enter his life.

Today, Knowles is stepping into a new chapter with confidence and calm, even hinting at a new connection she calls a very nice gentleman. She is moving forward without regret, grounded in everything she has learned.

And while social media debates her choices, her path shows that leaving after 33 years was her first real act of choosing herself.